Nigel Lester of OMNR led off with “Long-Term Monitoring in Lake Ecosystems”; Nigel showed us how this critical aspect on monitoring was being done right. lester

Ron Tozer, Algonquin Provincial Park Naturalist [ret.] followed with a great talk and set of visuals from his long experience on “Long Term Changes in Bird Populations (Species, Migration, Timing)”. tozer edited

Bradley Fauteux, Managing Director, Ontario Parks was his at his usual self-effacing best as he credited colleagues for helping develop a terrific and extemporaneous strategic talk he delivered on “long Term Monitoring in Provincial Parks and Protected Areas”.

Dan Strickland (Algonquin PP Chief Naturalist [ret.] (co-author Ryan Norris, Associate Professor, University of Guelph) took us straight to the heart of the technical side of large database monitoring with their talk on “Gray Jay Long Term Monitoring”. (Dan/Ryan’s talk is too large to upload – contact Ryan Norris for a copy of the talk)

Glenn Tattersall, Professor, Brock University came all the way up and straight from an overseas trip to treat the audience to his work with “Early Insights into a Long-Term Salamander Monitoring Program: Bat Lake Inventory of Spotted Salamanders (BLISS)” tattersall et al

Day 1 closed with a set of roundtables discussing effective monitoring, using the earlier presentations as a launch. This was followed by a great evening out with almost all of the AGM participants at a local restaurant where matters both serious and fun were discussed.

The Day 2 Contributed Presentations were a great mix of ideas on monitoring and related concepts. It was terrific having so many student and early career professionals there to join us and to present – they represent the new generation of professionals in parks and protected areas. The presentations were: